National Agenda Becoming Clearer
13 November 2004
The national media reporting of the meeting between Australian
Vice-Chancellors' Committee (AVCC) and the Federal Minister, Dr
Brendan Nelson, has given prominence to threats, conflicts and
divisions. But that wasn't a fair reflection of a discussion that
ranged across indexation of university grants, the teaching and
research involvement of universities, workplace reforms,
State-Federal governance of higher education, and compulsory
student union membership.
These matters had been raised in the media by the Minister
recently when he signalled he wished to revisit some of the reforms
passed by the Senate in December 2003. The way in which these
matters had been treated by the media last week resulted in the
AVCC inviting the Minister to talk directly with us, which he
agreed to do, along with his most senior officers.
Dr Nelson commenced the discussion by carefully outlining his
views on the issues. He did so in a methodical and balanced way
without a hint of threat, and stressed the need for discussion and
dialogue, and welcomed further interactions with
vice-chancellors.
None of this, of course, sells newspapers, and the next day
there was talk of 'bans', 'secrets', and so on, which I am sure
sold more papers, but also made the subsequent debates harder to
handle, because adversarial positions are presented to the
different parties and the predictable comments flow.
The issues that were actually raised, and the way they were
discussed, was in reality an attempt to resolve important issues in
a positive way.
There was an outline of what is happening to higher education
globally and how that is impacting on Australian universities, and
in particular, to generate world class teaching and research. This
is an absolutely necessary discussion topic at a time when
universities' roles are to be redefined to allow for 'teaching
only' and when private educators and international universities are
attempting to become higher education providers here.
There was discussion of the Federal Government's agenda for
workplace changes, for example, to ban the withholding of students'
results by staff, and the need to offer Australian Workplace
Agreements to staff.
There was also discussion of both the merits and demerits of
Federal-State reporting requirements, and universities only having
to report to one level of government to cut down on the massive
reporting requirements expected of us and give the Commonwealth
greater powers over a sector they fund.
Dr Nelson expressed his views about student unionism and their
political activities being supported by compulsory fees from
students. No specific secret plan had been hatched by the
universities - it was an occasion for seeking clarification of the
government's position, and there was a range of views on how a
compromise might be struck, following different experiences in
Victoria and Western Australia, in particular.
This was an important meeting for the AVCC and there were many
positive reassurances provided by the Minister, particularly on
issues associated with State-Federal control, and also that no
government should force a 'teaching' or 'research' label on any
university - and that the universities are in the best position to
judge needs and emphases.
This University will certainly want to continue to progress its
own distinctive teaching-research nexus, because this region needs
both outstanding university programs, as well as regionally and
internationally significant research to mobilise further economic
activity and contribute to our quality of life.
Professor Paul Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of University of
the Sunshine Coast